Dance Nation, Vol. 7

AllMusic Review
by Jason Birchmeier

The seventh Dance Nation mix featuring Brandon Block and Tall Paul still suffers from the same problems plaguing preceding releases in the series -- and all of the Ministry of Sound albums, in fact. Once again, the song lengths get cut short in favor of cramming extra songs on the album, and once again you get the feeling that these DJs don't really get much creative control over their overplayed, commercial track selections. But looking past these issues -- which most fans of the series will no doubt do -- there is a lot of great music here, beginning with the Artful Dodger's "Movin Too Fast (Bump & Flex Vocal Mix)" and B15 Project's "Girls Like Us." These two tracks in particular start things off on a positive note with their uplifting garage tendencies and vocal hooks. From there, the obvious filler causes problematic lulls throughout the two sets, but a few other moments stand out as highlights: the post-modern updates on Micheal Jackson's "Off the Wall" and Bob Marley's vocals, the pop-dance of Eddie Amador and ATB, and the smoking trance run of Timo Maas' "Der Schieber (Rapid Eye Mix)" into Trancesetters' "Roaches" into Oliver Lieb's "Subraumstimulation (Sander Kleinenberg Remix)" into Durango '95's "Drum Decay." In the end, Ministry of Sound still cuts their tracks short and feature uninspired mixes, but this is one of the better mixes they put out in 2000.